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Focus: The next Kurt Cobain?

He's an unstable junkie and jailbird with a raw and aggressive talent

It was last Tuesday night and inside the Brixton Academy 4,000 people were waiting to see Pete the unpredictable, the most enig-magnetic British musician to emerge for years. Is he weird, wonderful, a loser, a hopeless drug addict, a rock god? Nobody quite knows — not yet.

The crowd packing out the southwest London venue comprised teenagers and twentysomethings, mostly white, bright and savvy. There was an edginess alien to most modern rock concerts. The fans were there for more than music. They were drawn by the thrill of unknown dangers, because with Pete Doherty anything could happen — and they wanted a rush of that freedom.

Mick Jones, a former member of the Clash, appeared on stage and introduced Doherty’s band, Babyshambles. Then the singer appeared, a thin, middle-class former choirboy who has become the most notorious drug addict in the country, maybe clean now, maybe not.